Question: I have heard that sex in ancient Egypt was accepted and there were very little taboos on men or women. That both men and women were allowed to have sex with whoever they wished without being seen as promiscuous as long as they were single, the only real Taboo being adultry. Was ancient egypt really that sexually free?
This week is shaping up to be a trial run for my surely wildly popular new column, Anne Writes About Ancient Sex.
Honestly, the answer to your question is no. There has never been a human society in which there were no sexual taboos whatsoever (at least not that we know of); just as a generality, almost everybody disapproves of bestiality, and the ancient Egyptians are no different (I know the gods do it, but what the gods are allowed to do and what humans are allowed to do are vastly different).
Incest was definitely practiced by the pharaonic royal lines, but it wasn't common among the people; it was specifically something done to preserve the royal bloodline, not a general practice (which is not to say that it was illegal for common people; we just don't know and don't have any records of it). Having sex in religious areas like temples that were not specifically designed for it was also taboo, as doing so could be considered disrespectful to the priesthood or gods who resided there.
Most notably, male homosexuality was, at least under some conditions, pretty taboo in ancient Egyptian culture; when it turns up in stories it's generally in tones of mockery, and the Book of Going Forth by Day includes deceased people swearing that, along with many other sins they have not committed, that they have not had homosexual intercourse (which is described as "a deviation from Ma'at"). Declarations from the royal court decreeing to their people not to engage in homosexual intercourse have also been discovered, most notably by Ptahhotep. The interesting thing about male homosexuality in ancient Egypt is that it's definitely around and not always in negative terms; rather, it seems more that it depends on what role a man plays in a homosexual encounter how he ends up being seen. There's less apparent stigma attached to being the pitcher than the catcher, if you get my meaning, which is pretty nicely illustrated for us in the myth of Set and Horus: who's considered politically dominant is based on who sexually dominated the other, and while Set is humiliated when Horus' semen is discovered inside him, Horus is not looked down upon for his part in the presumable sex that occurred. It also depends on where you are in ancient Egypt; Memphis, for example, outright considered homosexuality forbidden for men, while other places do not have concrete records or seem not to have addressed it. Some stories of pharaohs (like Neferkare) having sex with other men heavily stress that the affair was a secret and would have been looked down upon if discovered, while others (like Akhenaten) seem to have been more widely known (but then again, I think we all know that Akhenaten does whatever the hell he wants regardless of religion or popular opinion).
As for generalized promiscuity, though, you're right; not only do there not seem to have been any restrictions on sex before marriage, but some Egyptologists actually think that having had sex might have been a requirement before young girls could get married, a sort of practice run and affirmation of fertility. Several religious festivals, especially those belonging to fertility goddesses like Hathor or Bastet, have been recorded by ancient historians as encouraging people to have sex as a celebration of life. (And while we're talking about the ladies, we don't know of any prohibition against female homosexuality; nobody ever seems to mention it.)
As with all really old civilizations, most scholars on the subject have to admit that we don't really know too much about it. We have a few direct writings, a few things we can infer from stories or art, but in general there are a lot of things we just have no clue about (take pedophilia, for example: there's no evidence that the ancient Egyptians were either okay with it or opposed to it, as it never seems to come up). In Scion's setting, unless your game is actually set in ancient Egypt, pretty much anything goes for the busy modern Scion; after all, that kid's a modern person with modern mores, so he or she's likely to already have an individual idea of what is and isn't fun, sexy, or forbidden. I do think you could get some really entertaining mileage out of culture clash between that and parental expectations, though - imagine Horus' probable reaction to discovering that one of his sons has a big strapping boyfriend (duck and cover!).
Hey, Anonymous! I'm going to go ahead and post your response here even though it came in through the question box, just in case you want to continue the conversation further. :)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said: Thank you for your response on desert heat. I phrased the question badly. I was not looking for acceptance of bestiality or even homosexulaity. I was just wondering how restricted women were sexually and you answer seems to be not at all. So many other ancient societies were patriarchal and opressed womens society but in egypt it's seems that women were as equal to men as it was possible to be until modern times, and a hell of a lot more sexually liberated.
Well, yes and no. Remember that this is a culture in which getting married and having babies is the single most important thing a lady can be doing, and most would be around fifteen or sixteen years old when they tied the knot (unless they were having trouble finding a husband for some reason). Since adultery was very much taboo for the ancient Egyptians, that means that the vast majority of a woman's life was spent having sex with only one man: her husband, no exceptions allowed.
It's also important to keep in mind that a lot of this is based on our complete lack of information; we just don't know all of the ancient Egyptians' rules, laws or customs. It's nice to think of ancient Egypt as a paradise for sexually liberated women, and maybe it even was, but the fact is that it could just as easily have been heavily restricted in ways that we no longer have knowledge of. As far as we know, lesbianism was okay - but that's only because we don't have anyone saying it was not, not because anything confirms it. As far as we know, casual sex before marriage was okay - but that's only because we don't have any information, and it could just as easily have been a practice only available to some women depending on their status or birth. We don't even really know for sure if Egyptian women were ritually circumcised; we know men sometimes were because we have paintings of it, but while no such paintings exist pertaining to women (and some paintings do exist of women apparently enjoying having their genitals fondled), other written sources we have mention the difference between "cut" and "uncut" girls.
In the end, it's a total vacuum of information unless some enterprising Egyptologist comes up with something new, so for purposes of Scion I'd do whatever suits your fancy most. It's possible that ancient Egypt really was completely liberated as far as womens' sexuality goes, so if that's what you like for character or setting reasons, go for it.